Could this be the first time in Australian history that the following sentiment has been publicly expressed?:
"For more than 20 years, Australians have read and heard pro-Israel positions from journalists, editors, politicians, trade union leaders, academics and students who have returned from the all-expenses-paid Israel-lobby trips. As someone who has both taken one of these trips when I was the editor of the Sydney Morning Herald and then many years later lived in Israel for six years, I am in a position to compare what one is exposed to on these trips and the truth. In my opinion no editors, journalists or others should take these trips: they grotesquely distort the reality and are dangerous in the sense that they allow people with a very small amount of knowledge to pollute Australian public opinion. Those on the trips return to Australia thinking they have some sort of grasp of the place, but they have spent more time in Tel Aviv's most expensive restaurants and cafes and in settlements than looking at the real crisis behind trying to continue an occupation against another people. The effect of these trips is to shore up opinion behind the hardline pro-settlement elements of Israel politics. They allow Israel to avoid the public backlash that objective reporting of their settlement activity would bring." (Balcony Over Jerusalem: A Middle East Memoir, John Lyons, 2017, p 288)
If you haven't yet purchased a copy of Lyons' book, please, do it NOW!
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
2 comments:
Reading the book! It amazes me that the pollies even need "the trip of enlightenment" given how easy it is to come to grips with the subject on the net. Couldn't agree more with Lyons, when he says no politician or journalist should be going on these sponsored trips.
Congrats! Buy another for a friend as smart as yourself. Our politicians and journalists are not interested in coming to grips with this subject. Freebies is what it's all about.
Post a Comment